Emily Barnier & Kirsty Judges Photo Essay

Theme: Shoes, Sub-theme: Laces

Rationale

The theme for our Photo Essay is 'shoes', and our sub-theme is 'laces'. Our stimulus was the exploration of ‘Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics.’ (Murray, 2008). We believe that these everyday objects perfectly reflect Murray’s notion of “amateur photography” as well as the representation of the “digitalized (and decentralized) aesthetics of the everyday.” 

Since the development of digital photography, Murray suggests that there has been a significant shift in the way people utilise cameras. Nowadays, photography is “less about the special or rarefied moments” and “more about an immediate, rather fleeting, display and collection of one’s discovery”. Photographers; amateur or professional, are able to store and erase images on memory

cards, as well as viewing them immediately after being taken. There is now a sense of “disposability and immediacy” to photography. 

Our photo essay represents these characteristics through the collaboration of images focused on shoe laces. Shoe laces are an element of the “creator’s work/home life” which have been captured and edited on iPhoto in order to be transformed into something beautiful through the use of lighting, colour, texture and angles. It is an example of the modern day fascination with the process of “compilation and comparison.”

Our intent was to capture a range of images which when collaborated, illustrated the subtle yet striking differences of a mundane object. We then assembled them with an accompanying soundtrack “Runt - Blackbird (The Beatles)” (Runtalala, 2012) in iMovie. Our finished product has been uploaded to Youtube and posted to Blogger. This process exemplifies one of Murray’s key arguments; these images help “alter the way that we construct narratives about ourselves and the world around us.”

Reference: Murray, S (2008) Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics. Journal of Visual Culture August 2008 vol. 7(2). 147-163.

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